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An economic experiment

It’s no secret around these parts that I’m looking for a real-life job with better pay and more advancement opportunity. I just saw exactly such a job with a great company, the physical site is very close by — I could almost walk to it. The qualifications include familiarity with online commerce, strong customer service experience, ability to navigate the Internet, clear and concise verbal and written skills, and the ability to keep cool under pressure. A background in online community management, sales and analytics was listed as a plus.

I’m a former investment analyst and portfolio manager, currently work for an Internet company in customer service & tech support, where I am the number one performer out of hundreds for the entire year of 2012, a published author and active free lance writer. On the plus side my edu is in math and physics and I’m a highly accomplished skydiver, rock climber and climbing instructor — so, definitely analytical and cool under pressure. And as far as online management, well, buahahaha! I mean come on, right? There’s no one in Austin who has more experience in large, contentious online communities than me, at least as far as I know.

IOW, I fit all these requirements like a custom-made glove.

Furthermore the job just popped up! I got it on a refresh while I was actually on the site looking, so I saw it, quick, and already had a resume and CV already stored with that company, only had to tailor it for a minute or two and click the mouse, viola it’s now one of the first apps they’ll have sitting in their inbox on a Monday morning seconds after it was posted. Best of all, they’re hiring dozens of people, not just one. I have no misdemeanor or felony warrants or convictions, I’ll sail through a background check.

I feel pretty good about it, but even with all that going for me, what do you suppose the odds are I’ll ever hear from this company again? Sadly, based on past experience, I’ll be lucky to get a form letter two weeks from now telling they’ve gone with candidates who better fit the job criteria, less than a one in 10 chance of even getting an interview. But if I could find and apply to a dozen or so jobs like this every month the odds would probably pay off eventually. But maybe the economy’s gotten better afterall … I’ll keep you posted.

Think positive. My husband just immigrated less than a month ago, and he started a new job today that he began looking for when he had been in the US for less than a week. He was quite literally prepared to take anything that paid more than minimum wage and didn’t involve night shift. But the job he found was actually in the field he wants to enter. That was unexpected, and to us, a signal that things might be getting easier. We also live in Texas.

Have you considered a Kickstarter-type effort to fund your bestalled book? Or is there not enough time in your survival schedule for things like that? (I know it takes a lot of time to be poor…not in the least being snarky about that.

Are applications only taken on line? Why not walk over and hand one personally to someone in HR? I don’t pretend to be an expert at this, and now that I’m retired, I no longer have to seek employment, but getting some personal contact always worked for me.
Problem solving abilities are also a bigger plus than knowledge of a field, so you might want to emphasize that.
Good luck. You deserve it.

You could improve your chances if you can network with your local friends to find some contacts in the company and get some internal grassroots support, especially if it’s in the same department as the job opening. I’d also suggest following up with a snail-mail letter if possible, reiterating your valuable assets to the company and enclosing your resume. It may get through the deluge where emails might get thrown in the virtual slush pile.

These days, you’re lucky if you get the form letter. Between shockingly bad manners and the condescension that comes from years of being in the driver’s seat, some companies don’t even bother to even tell the also-ran candidates who came in for 3 separate interviews, as my brother can attest.

Yes, Indeed I have Random, and I might just do that in exactly six weeks or so. MachineIntel — that is a great idea, and I’d do it if it were possible. These days what would actually happen is a metallic voice at the door would direct you to the website without even letting you in, if they didn’t outright call security on you. Assuming you could even find the address, which they and most other companies these days definitely do not want anyone to do.

It’s a careful balance, juggling personal expectations when jobhunting. I find it all a terrific PITA myself, even when I know I’ve got a really good chance of it turning out well. The only thing I’ve learned over time as I get more and more exposure to jobhunting from either side of it is that a lot of the rejections would sound pretty random to the person being rejected. I’ve heard people get rejected for a bad phone connection during an interview, the employer having erratic and unrealistic expectations, etc.

So I hope you do well. If this is the place that helps you do it, I’m sure they’ll be quite happy to have you. If not, their loss and hopefully you find something else soon.